Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw is the Women’s Super League’s joint top scorer after finding the net against West Ham on Sunday with a league goal tally of nine - on par with Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly.
The 25-year-old joined Manchester City in July 2021 and scored a total of nine goals in 17 appearances that year. However, she has hit the ground running this season - after a player exodus in the summer - with nine goals in 10 games to date and making a bigger name for herself as each week goes by.
But manager Gareth Taylor believes there’s more to come as former City forward Shaun Goater takes Shaw under his wing, passing on his invaluable experience to the talented Jamaican striker.
Taylor told Manchester City media: “The Bunny and Shaun [partnership] is in its infancy but something I was considering quite a bit around November time. Sometimes when you’re fortunate enough to work in an organisation like this, there’s lots of expertise. Sometimes we don’t tend to have a look at what others might bring.
“Shaun was a different type of striker, he worked hard on his movements and was really good at it. One run for the defender, one for the ball.
“When you have expertise under your nose like we have, there's always good opportunities to sync people up and learn from them.
“She can work on movement within the box and we’ve lent on him [Shaun] to help her out and have some good conversations, potentially going through some clips with her on an individual basis.”
Shaw has struggled with her movement during a few games this season. Playing as the nine she is the prime attacking target, however, being able to draw defenders away or shrug off a man-marking defender is just as impactful as always being available for the ball to feet.
She was static against second-tier Sunderland and their back five and not given an inch in the Manchester Derby, so movement is an element of her game that could increase her attacking threat.
In such games, it took an entire half for Shaw to understand the need to drop deeper and build up an attack from the middle of the park, but when she does, like against Everton and Aston Villa, the reward is sweet; two assists while also finding the net herself.
Manchester City line-up again tonight (January 18) at the Pirelli Stadium for their final League Cup group round against Leicester. The Sky Blues top the group and will look for another win to defend their title but struggle with a trio of injuries in Demi Stokes, Kerstin Casparij and Hayley Raso.
Taylor said: “The boss explained: “We’re yet to sit down with the medical department and find out where Demi, Kerstin and Hayley are.
“I don’t think there’s anything too significant. Hopefully when we train later we’ll have a full squad to select from.”
The game kicks off at 7 pm.
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